FMX in the rain and Racing controversy

Sunday, 24 January 2010 15:18

bandung-band Sometimes you really don't want to do something, like riding in the rain on a mud soaked course for freestyle mx. And then for racers having the controversy of having a protest because all the foreign riders qualified highest and the rest of the riders didn't want to ride. It wasn't looking good for Bandung.

Rolling-thunder-bikes The entire week in Bandung was raining. Every morning we'd wake up to clear blue skies, the sun is beating down on us and it was pretty damn hot. Come 1pm the clouds started building and then by 2pm it'd be pouring with rain. Every day. We did the rolling thunder parade through Bandung the day before with the same problem. We were riding old TS 185 and 225 bikes through the town in really bad traffic and at 2pm the rain started coming down. We were riding around in the rain for about 2 hours but it's not like anyone would have been watching us. But hey, we did it and that's the promotion for the event.

It was no different on Saturday for the event. The track was already saturated with puddles all over the mud on the run up, the ramp was wet and the downramp was like a pile of jelly. We had no option at the start of the day to say there's no way we could do a freestyle show at night time. We were looking down the barrel of wasting 2 weeks in Indonesia with no riding, but at least it was all a good holiday.

Adam Blackwell who has been building all the tracks had done the very best he could in the crappy circumstances but there's nothing you can do to stop the rain. But he managed to get some road-base to be brought in and he put it over the top of the slush run up which was gravel. Somehow it managed to pack in ok, and it wasn't muddy and slippery. So we solved one problem.

Then it was the ramp. We managed to get it fixed through the week so it wasn't a 3-stage ramp with a curve, flat and curve at the top. It looked almost like an Aussie comp ramp. We thought the plywood might be too slippery with all the water still on it, but the painted sand surface actually worked a treat.

Bandung-ramp-mud And finally the downramp would be our last problem which in the was the worst part. Adam managed to make it look pretty hard on the surface, but the rain through the day on it just turned it to slop again and each time we landed on it we'd literally sink into the mud up to the swingarm and created deep ruts each time. After 5 jumps we'd made ruts all across the downramp and it was hard to even find a good spot to land.

So with everything going against us, we decided to push the ramp in to 30 feet and see if it was possible. Yeah, it was 'OK' to do. We had to get a fair bit of speed and carry the momentum into the ramp so there was no wheel spin which could have made things interesting. There was soft spots in the run up still where you had to power through it but keep it going. The landing sucked. Through the show me and Clinton almost binned it a few times. I did a Seat Grab Indy on one occasion and came down for landing, landed straight in a foot-deep rut that Clinton so kindly left behind and the bike stuck in, kicked 90 degrees sideways and I somehow pulled it together and rode it out. Clinton had the same problem on a jump or two as well.

Bandung-bike-mud We did the one show and got out of there unscathed which was the best feeling! We got out of our muddy gear and cleaned up and headed down to watch the boys race the main event. Practice looked muddy as hell but it looked like it was getting tacky. But because there was a few other races in between they churned it all up again and a bit more rain made it a quagmire again.

From qualifying Kim Ashkenazi was in first place, Lewis Woods 2nd, Kiwi Matt Hunt was 3rd and Aussie *cough* 'Black Hawk' was in 4th place. (Nice work Blake). So all the foreigners had taken top qualifying in a really really muddy qualifier. As the boys went out in order to pick their gates you wouldn't believe what happened next. And we actually said through the day 'What is going to be protested this week?'.

The Indonesian's boycotted racing because they thought it was unfair the Aussie/Kiwi racers had top honours for qualifying. Which defeats the purpose because it was only qualifiying, not a race. Anything can happen in a mud race. But in the end it was official that there was no championship points to come from it. Not exactly the racing spirit.

What happened though would make you realise that boycotting was a bad idea when in the first corner Matt Hunt went too hard and took out a sign and came off and found himself at the back of the pack. Then Kim was hammering along at a good pace in the mud until his bike seized on a jump and he got high-sided and spat into the ground. The bike didn't kick over so that was his race done. Then Lewis washed the front out and came off. It was enough to put his confidence down a bit but kept going until he went over a jump, washed out and ended up falling down the jump into a hole full of water up to his hips with the bike upside down up to the triple clamps. bandung-band

"Black Hawk" was going great guns until he got a nudge from Lewis and was shot off the track into the water as well where he spent the rest of the race trying to clear it out and get going. So the Indonesian riders had a clear run to take all the top positions. But nope, because of the boycott the championship points weren't included which is a real shame. By the last 3 laps there was only 6 riders left out of 20 who started on the course. Kiwi racer Matt Hunt managed to keep himself up right and coming from last place he took out 3rd spot, while "Black Hawk" managed to start his bike and finish the last lap having only done 3 or 4 laps before he came off.

bandung-music-mud So that was the end of the night and we were somewhat glad to have gotten through it. We headed back over and checked the band out to finish the night off. It was pretty funny seeing the crowd moshing in the mud and ruts the racer's had left behind in front of the stage.

So now we're hoping that the Jakarta 5th round will be a lot better, but they have had a week full of rain there too with the forecast for more rain. I'm only hoping it stops enough that we can actually do a proper show. 30ft rain shows aren't my cup of tea and I'd rather show the crowd what FMX really is, not a show of Nic-Nac's and Click-Clack's. We're off to Jakarta now and see what we get when we arrive. Check back for more news!

Now that's a bike stand - perfectly done so the chair leg holds the bike up and the other chair leg stops the back wheel from rolling forward. Clever haha.

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